I have attempted to upgrade Windows 2000 Professional to Windows XP professional using a Windows XP installer disc.The first time I tried it a message came up saying that an upgrade of this nature was not supported. I went ahead with the installation anyway, following the instructions on the install disc. When a message came up sayng another operating system was already installed, I decided to install XP on an external hard drive. This took some time. However when I now try to boot up my computer a message comes up saying - windows could start because of a computer disc hardware configuration problem, could not read from the selected boot disc check boot path and disc hardware.- I believe I need to erase the internal hard drive. Am I correct and how do I do this?

However when I now try to boot up my computer a message comes up saying - windows could start because of a computer disc hardware configuration problem, could not read from the selected boot disc check boot path and disc hardware.

On this point you should already have seen the GRUB boot menu (or LILO if you decided to use it). Select BLAG here (using arrow keys) and everything will be fine.

Sorry I did not realise this was such an issue. Surely given what I think may be the politics of this website I did not think you would object to the free distribution and use of Microsoft products. The alternative for me is to go to my local petit- bourgeoise and pay him £100 to reinstall windows.
Surely the knowledge of how to do this should be made freely available and not the monopoly of a privileged few nor should it be private property or subject to enclosure like patenting the human genome for example.

I won't pretend to speak for Jebba, but I suspect that this is more a bandwidth issue than a political or philosophical one. I think it's generous to provide a "Slaveware" forum for the purpose of helping users troubleshoot non-free software on BLAG systems, but to provide assistance with a Windows problem (or even a Solaris or Ubuntu one) seems out of scope.

Surely given what I think may be the politics of this website I did not think you would object to the free distribution and use of Microsoft products. The alternative for me is to go to my local petit- bourgeoise and pay him £100 to reinstall windows.

If you think the politics of this website don't object to using Microsoft products you are completely missing the point. The entire goal of the project is to use *FREE SOFTWARE*, not microsoft products, Apple, Adobe, etc. Your thread is completely off topic here.

To understand what we are talking about when we say "free software", see:

Sorry I did not realise this was such an issue. Surely given what I think may be the politics of this website I did not think you would object to the free distribution and use of Microsoft products. The alternative for me is to go to my local petit- bourgeoise and pay him £100 to reinstall windows.

Ooohhhh! you thought we're here to save you spending money to save your windoze installation, I hope you paid for the windoze CD in the first instance and it's not a bootleg copy.
This forum is about free software, meaning free as in speech not free beer I think you are just interested in free beer, I don't want to be rude but don't you think you should post your problem on a windoze oriented forum?

Jebba is being very cool about this post, if I had administrative rights I would have deleted it....wise up moron haven't you heard of FAST? install BLAG then come back with questions on that OS.

Ididn't say that I didn't think your politics DID NOT object to using microsoft products rather that they SHOULD NOT, depending on how the products are used. Surely it is not the use value of things is objectionable but the fact that they have exchange value as well, that the unmitigated disaster of commodity production has taken hold and has penetrated into every nook and cranny of society. Where everything, including information is commodified it makes sense to try to reappropriate it and make it freely available to all. Surely microsoft products(or books or beer or public transport) are not inherently bad it is the use to which they are put .Weyasey, what are all the ooooos and ahs about,-you are not merely being rude you are being downright abusive and objectionable in a sort of macho post-punk way- and why do you hope I paid for my bootleg copy of Windows? If I did not pay for it and WAS ABLE TO FREELY DISTRIBUTE AND USE IT would this make it any different from BLAG? What is wrong with trying to "save money" anyway? In the sites statement of what "free" means you do not seem to object to to the "freedom" to commercially distribute a product and in my view commercial freedom is no freedom at all except in a kind of right-wing libertarian Adam Smith free-market capitalism kind of way. We are talking about a society where everybody's freedom restricts everybody else's. I, on the other hand am not trying to save money for commercial gain it is merely that I object to paying bill gates fifty quid or whatever. I am certainly no moron it is merely that my understanding of what happens between the CPU producing square wave pulses at 3GHz and the graphics I see on the screen is to say the least rather sketchy or do you object to knowledge INCLUDING THE KNOWLEDGE OF HOW TO MAKE SOFTWARE FREELY AVAILABLE- being made freely available to all. I would install blag were it not for the problem I first outlined so maybe I could get some advice rather than abuse. Jebba thank you for your tolerance perhaps you could consider deleting contributions that include flaming rather than my own contribution. What hurts because you're alive, is that from Sartre or something?

If I did not pay for it and WAS ABLE TO FREELY DISTRIBUTE AND USE IT would this make it any different from BLAG?

Yes, because your conception of free is different from ours. We consider the *FREEDOM TO MODIFY* vital as well, and you can't do that with MS crap:

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* The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this. * The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

MS stuff violates all four freedoms, but even if you count copying proprietary junk as "free", you're still lacking the freedom to study/change.

Oh, and as for the part whether you actually paid microsloth or not, i couldn't care less. I have no problem with people not paying for proprietary junk, but prefer they used the free software route we offer.

If I did not pay for it and WAS ABLE TO FREELY DISTRIBUTE AND USE IT would this make it any different from BLAG?

As jebba lined out, that's far from being sufficient.

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What is wrong with trying to "save money" anyway?

Uuuh can't answer this here. Maybe losing the point of freedom.

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I would install blag were it not for the problem I first outlined so maybe I could get some advice rather than abuse.

Okay, that's the point. I think it really would be nice if some people would calm down a bit. We're just in a communication trap here.

Let's see it as lined out in the following:
techmoron would like to have BLAG on his box.
He currently has a broken OS (why should I care which one) on his box.
-> Just installing BLAG would mean loss of a considerable amount of data (I assume)

So here is my advice:
You can use a live CD, like dyne:bolic or the BLAG liveCD to save your data.
This will be quite comfortable if you have some external storing device to backup them to. If you don't have such, you hopefully got space on your hdd left (in best case as much as currently used). You can install BLAG beside the broken OS and copy over the data from there. Then you can wipe the space on your hdd containing the broken OS.
If you don't have enough space to install BLAG beside the other OS and copy/move all the files over to BLAG it will get quite painful. You will have to move as much files over to BLAG as possible, boot up with one of the live disks, resize partitions in order to make more space avaible for BLAG, move some files and resize again...

That's the best way to solve your problem from my point of view. I hope you haven't been scared away yet and are ready to ask further questions. But please don't ask for support on non-free OSes. Imagine to ask a veg(etari)an for help on butchering. It simply won't work. (-;

More to the point what makes you think we would bother to have any Windows experts here? Would you come here asking how to fix a spaceshuttle engine? Or how to have sex with a badger without catching an STD? Would you ask an OS X question here?

Some of our users have never used Windows at all. Would you want us to give you phony advice or just say this is the wrong place? Those people here who have used Windows now use BLAG for a reason and see no reason to have to boot Windows to find a long winded solution to a problem you could have solved on a forum that is Windows specific.

It is not about bandwidth or domination but what we like doing, what we like using and what we know. Anything else is just fake.

Has techmoron actually said he is interested in leaving MS Windows behind, and moving to Linux? I couldn't tell from what I've read.

I feel strongly about this, so I need to say something. Anyone using MS Windows should pay for the product. If the purchase price is too high, switch to Linux. Using XP illegally should not be the other option. I wouldn't think anyone here is going to spend their time helping get XP up and running.

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The alternative for me is to go to my local petit- bourgeoise and pay him £100 to reinstall windows.

Who gets that much for installing Win XP? I gotta start charging more.

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